How can I create a windows installer MSI that does not require admin access

Question

I've created an MSI windows installer that installs a plug-in which I wrote for a piece of software used at my office. However, a number of users here don't have admin rights to their computers, and IT is getting frustrated having to install the plug-in for them.

My installer does nothing but copy a couple files, to locations that the users would otherwise have access to copy files to. Is there some way to modify my Setup project so that the resulting MSI does not require administrator rights?

Answer 1

I don't have a setup to test this on at the moment, but assuming Wix, in the Package element, try setting InstallPrivileges='limited' and InstallScope='perUser'.

That said, if all you really need to do is copy some files, considered using a simple batch script instead.

Answer 2

There's two approaches here:

1) Create an installer that doesn't require Admin privs because it doesn't install anything that needs it. If you can really do this, you might want to consider a ClickOnce installation and see if it meets your needs.

2) Educate your IT department on how to drop your MSI onto a network share and publish it through Group Policy. This way the users can go to Add/Remove programs and initial the installation but have it run elevated without a SysAdmin having to walk from desk to desk doing it by hand. ( I'm kind of suprised they don't already know how to do that. )